The Most Beautiful Flower That Grows
by Easterly Winds
Summary: Nessa took her coffee black.


Nessa took her coffee black. Boq laughed to himself. He knelt and closed his eyes, the laughter draining away to a quiet sob. Memories flooded back to him, poured like the water from his irrigation model.

_"Don't you think that maybe God is responsible for science?" he choked out._

_"God gave will to all men, men disrespected God with science." She answered hotly._

_"But they're doing good, making cures, helping the sick and the ailing--"_

_"Not all of them." She refused. "... not me."_

He had panicked then, had wished she would listen to the voice of reason, instead of the voices in her head.

_It wasn't something he meant to do, nor did he want to do it. But it might just get him out of trouble. Squeezing his eyes shut, Boq surged upwards, resting his elbows in Nessa's lap and kissing her. Nessa half-squeaked, and slid her fingers into Boq's hair. His cheeks burned hotly, as he let Nessa's fingers coax him into being more and more affectionate than he had intended, and it wasn't long before his priorities were all jumbled, and he was awkwardly nipping at her bottom lip._

His first kiss, and hers as well. He grinned wryly at the idea of it. How innocent, fumbling, and clumsy they had been. And the coffee date that had preceded and followed it, the first of many. He had promised to learn to love her, and in time he did. She was not easy to get used to. They had many arguments, but they would always make up. He recalled their first fight was stupid, something he barely remembered.

_"You went out to the tavern with Avaric and Fiyero and left me here!" She exploded at him, her knuckles white on the handles of her chair. "How could you?!"_

_"It wasn't as if I had a choice!" Boq argued back. "They dragged me there!"_

_"Get out." She turned the chair and icily ignored him._

_"You bitch." He spat out, and slammed the door on the way out._

He had come back an hour later, ready to apologize, and found her on the floor--she had obviously failed at getting into her bed and given up--sobbing.

_"Nessa!" He dropped to his knees and picked her up gently. "Are you hurt?"_

_"N-No." She shook her head, and closed her eyes. "God has kept me safe this long."_

_He fought not to roll his eyes, and instead kissed her cheek. "Well then thank God you aren't hurt."_

_"I already did." She smiled weakly up at him and he shook his head, bending to kiss her._

The memory of the next day made him chuckle under his breath.

_"Nessie, what are those bruises?" Elphaba was immediately overprotective._

_"Elphaba, please. What bruises?" Nessa motioned for Boq to wheel them to the cafeteria, where they were supposed to be having coffee now._

_"You have bite marks on your neck." Elphaba couldn't escape the familiarity of the situation and turned the kind of copper color she got when she was mad. "Boq!"_

_"Go, Nessa, go!" Boq gleefully cried and wheeled her haphazardly around people in the corridor, trying valiantly to outrun the furious Elphaba._

She was so many of Boq's firsts. His first kiss, his first real girlfriend. He blushed as he remembered the first time he had slept in her bed. It had been innocent, for she would tolerate nothing else, but still...

_Boq unbuttoned his shirt and slid into bed, uncomfortably close to the wall, away from her. He didn't trust himself to lie next to her in just boxers. There was silence, then, "Boq? Can I... wear your shirt?" He laughed, sat up, and helped button her into it. When they had settled again, this time holding each other tenderly, she whispered into his ear, "You make me feel close to God." He nearly cried._

She was the kind of girl that Boq had thought would never allow sex until marriage, but the first time they had made love was in his bed in Ozma Towers.

_"Are you sure this is alright?" He rubbed her pale leg, noticing she was still wearing her jeweled shoes and somehow impossibly turned on. She nodded silently and turned her face to the ceiling, with an expression that made it clear she was praying. He slid in gently and watched her face turn from pious glory to carnal beauty._

He recalled the first time, one of many, they had gotten caught. It was in Nessa's room, and Elphaba had barged in.

_She whimpered loudly, and Boq grinned. He thrust harder, no longer afraid of hurting her, and she cried out breathlessly._

_"Nessie?!" Elphaba opened the door suddenly and shrieked her disapproval. "Get off her!" She obviously thought Boq was some burglar because she beat him soundly across the back of the head until he he turned around, still mortifyingly occupied with the poor embarrassed girl beneath him._

_"Boq!" Elphaba turned forest green as her sister called out to him, shaking with release._

Their final fight was just before Boq graduated from Shiz. He had blocked out everything about it except the tone of her voice when she had sent him away.

_"I never want to see you again!" She screamed at him. "I hate you!"_

_"I hate you too!" He stormed away, thinking of nothing but how __**furious**__ he was._

His last mistake, the bane of his existence, came the next day when Milla had comforted him and they had slept together. In a fit of rage, for he had not forgotten the fight, he had asked Milla to marry him. She had cried and accepted without a second thought.

"Boq." Milla touched his shoulder gently, holding their child on her hip. "Boq, it's time to go."

Boq wiped away a tear and set his rose on Nessa's casket. "The most beautiful flower that grows, the Unnamed God's precious rose."


End file.
